“ Ah me! the faces which wear either nakedness or rags; whose repose is stagnation, whose activity vice; ingorant at their worst, infamous at their best!
'Don't pull too hard,' said Hortense at last. 'Hadn't you better take breath a moment?'
'Madame is very good,' said the man, leaning upon his oars. 'But if you had taken me by the hour,' he added, with a return of the vicious grin, 'you wouldn't catch me loitering.'
'I suppose you work very hard,' said Madame Bernier. ”

“ The man was silent a moment, perhaps with surprise, for the next thing he said was:
'Madame is Spanish?'
'In that, perhaps, I am,' replied Hortense.
Again her companion was silent. The pause was prolonged. Madame Bernier broke it by a question which showed that she had been following the same train of thought.
'What is sufficient ground in this country for killing a man?'
The boatman sent a loud laugh over the water. Hortense drew her cloak closer about her. ”

“ An hour later Hortense Bernier came out of the house, and began to walk slowly through the garden toward the terrace which overlooked the water. The servants, when they came down at an early hour, had found her up and dressed, or rather, apparently, not undressed, for she wore the same clothes as the evening before.
'Tiens!' exclaimed Josephine, after seeing her, 'Madame gained ten years yesterday; she has gained ten more during the night.'
When Madame Bernier reached the middle of the garden she halted, and stood for a moment motionless, listening. The next, she uttered a great cry. ”

“ Even when he makes friends with you, his favors never taste right. Messing with him is like drinking out of a pewter mug. And so it is everywhere. Let your shadow once flit across a Spaniard's path, and he'll always see it there. If you've never lived in any but these damned clockworky European towns, you can't imagine the state of things in a South American seaport—one half the population waiting round the corner for the other half. But I don't see that it's so much better here, where every man's a spy on every other. ”

“ Every man has a standing account with his neighbor, just as madame has at her fournisseur's; and, ma foi, those are the only accounts they settle. The master of the Santiago may pay me one of these days for the pretty names I heaved after him when we parted company, but he'll never pay me my wages.'
A short pause followed this exposition of the virtues of the Spaniard.
'You yourself never put a man out of the world, then?' resumed Hortense. ”

“ In life we are all afloat on a tumultuous sea; we are all struggling toward some terra firma of wealth or love or leisure. The roaring of the waves we kick up about us and the spray we dash into our eyes deafen and blind us to the sayings and doings of our fellows. ”

“ La bonne idée!'
'Why don't you get some work that pays better?' repeated Hortense.
The man dipped his oars again.
'Work that pays better? I must work for work. I must earn that too. Work is wages. I count the promise of the next week's employment the best part of my Saturday night's pocketings. Fifty casks rolled from the ship to the storehouse mean two things: thirty sous and fifty more to roll the next day. Just so a crushed hand, or a dislocated shoulder, mean twenty francs to the apothecary and bon jour to my business.'
'Are you married?' asked Hortense. ”

“ The man gave a little toss of his head, as if to intimate the inadequacy of any supposition to grasp the extent of his labors.
'I've been up since four o'clock this morning, wheeling bales and boxes on the quay, and plying my little boat. Sweating without five minutes' intermission. C'est comme ça. Sometimes I tell my mate I think I'll take a plunge in the basin to dry myself. Ha! ha! ha!'
'And of course you gain little,' said Madame Bernier. ”

“ People talk, do they? Can't you talk as well as they? A woman is in the wrong from the moment she holds her tongue and refuses battle. And that you do too often. That pocket handkerchief is always more or less of a flag of truce.'
'I'm sure I don't know,' said Hortense indifferently ”

“ When a ship goes to pieces on those rocks out at sea, the poor devils who are pushing their way to land on a floating spar, don't bestow many glances on those who are battling with the waves beside them. ”

“ But it's one that ces messieurs at the Palais make short work with.'
'In South America and those countries, when a man makes life insupportable to you, what do you do?'
'Mon Dieu! I suppose you kill him.'
'And in France?'
'I suppose you kill yourself. Ha! ha! ha!'
By this time they had reached the end of the great breakwater, terminating in a lighthouse, the limit, on one side, of the inner harbor. The sun had set.
'Here we are at the lighthouse,' said the man; 'it's growing dark. Shall we turn?'
Hortense rose in her place a few moments, and stood looking out to sea. ”

“ A Spaniard's hatred is like lost sleep—you can put it off for a time, but it will gripe you in the end. The rascals always keep their promises to themselves. .... An enemy on shipboard is jolly fun. It's like bulls tethered in the same field. ”

“ But I've an old mother, a sister, and three nephews, who look to me for support. The old woman's too old to work; the lass is too lazy, and the little ones are too young. But they're none of them too old or young to be hungry, allez. I'll be hanged if I'm not a father to them all.'
There was a pause. The man had resumed rowing. Madame Bernier sat motionless, still examining her neighbor's physiognomy. ”

“ At six o'clock, Josephine and Valentine were still sitting together, discussing the probable causes and consequences of the event hinted at by the latter. Suddenly Madame Bernier's bell rang. Josephine was only too glad to answer it. She met her mistress descending the stairs, combed, cloaked, and veiled, with no traces of agitation, but a very pale face. ”

“ When we've lost hope ourselves, we want to make others sink. We hang weights about their necks, and dive down into the dirtiest pools for stones to cast at them. My friend, you don't feel the shots which are not aimed at you. ”

“ A gentleman, with an overcoat, walking stick, and small valise, came alongside in a little fishing boat, and got leave to go aboard.
'Is M. Bernier here?' he asked of one of the officers, the first man he met.
'I fancy he's gone ashore, sir. There was a boatman inquiring for him a few minutes ago, and I think he carried him off.
M. de Meyrau reflected a moment. Then he crossed over to the other side of the vessel, looking landward. Leaning over the bulwarks he saw an empty boat moored to the ladder which ran up the vessel's side. ”

“ Poor devils on the lookout for such work are as plentiful all along the South American coast as commissionaires on the street corners here.' The ferryman was evidently surprised at the fascination possessed by this infamous topic for so lady-like a person; but having, as you see, a very ready tongue, is is probable that his delight in being able to give her information and hear himself talk were still greater. 'And then down there,' he went on, 'they never forget a grudge. If a fellow doesn't serve you one day, he'll do it another. ”

“ It sheds a ray upon the dim upholstery of our souls. The visages of poor men, generally, know few alternations. There is a large class of human beings whom fortune restricts to a single change of expression, or, perhaps, rather to a single expression. ”

“ That a lass should have given me a dozen oranges she had promised him.'
'How odd!' said Madame Bernier, with a shrill kind of laugh. 'A man who owed you a grudge of this kind would just come up and stab you, I suppose, and think nothing of it?'
'Precisely. Drive a knife up to the hilt into your back, with an oath, and slice open a melon with it, with, a song, five minutes afterward.'
'And when a person is afraid, or ashamed, or in some way unable to take revenge himself, does he—or it may be a woman—does she, get some one else to do it for her?'
'Parbleu! ”

“ People don't think about us quite as much as you fancy. You and I, n'est-ce-pas? we have little time to concern ourselves about our neighbors' failings. Very well, other people are in the same box, better or worse. ”

“ At home, in a box I have a thousand francs in gold. You shall have those. I'll pay your passage and outfit to America. I have friends in New York. I'll write to them to get you work.'
'And you'll give your washing to my mother and sister, hein? Ha! ha! Jewels, fifteen thousand francs; one thousand more makes sixteen; passage to America—first class—five hundred francs ”

“ Language a Type of the Universe. By Stephen Pearl Andrews, 691
Lies, and How to Kill Them. By Hugh Miller Thompson, 437
Literary Notices, 116, 243, 362, 483, 601, 719
Madagascar. By W. H. Whitmore, 65
Music a Science. ”

“ Ænone; a Tale of Slave Life in Rome, 287, 385, 500, 619
American Finances and Resources. By Hon. Robert J. Walker, 40, 249, 324, 489
An Army: Its Organization and Movements. By Lieut.-Col. C. W. Tolles, A. Q. M.,707
An Hour in the Gallery of the National Academy of Design—Thirty-ninth Annual Exhibition,684
An Indian Love-Song. ”